The dialogue-less story is of a middle-aged, middle class man, who in his fervour for controlling his gadgets, winds up being controlled by them- forced to dance wildly to an eclectic selection of music.

‘People compliment the quality of the animation, which I’m pretty proud of as an animator,’ Hugo said of the film, which has already featured in several film festivals around the world. ‘And the 2D paint effect style raised some technical questions on how I created it.’

Hugo told us more about his animation work:

The Plus: How did you select what music would be featured in the short film?
Hugo Cierzniak: I tried to choose music that would be the most fun to animate with, and that would create the biggest contrast with the personality of the character.
I’m in love with Caravan Palace, a French electro-swing group, and they’ve been nice enough to let me use one of their most famous songs “Suzy”. The electro swing style was pretty relevant to the steam punk idea of the different gadgets in the scenes.

TP: What kind of reactions have you received from the international film festivals for it?
HC: When faced with a short film like Dip N’Dance, there are mainly two kinds of people in festivals: Some people are excited about seeing an animation with lots of dynamic scenes, colours and music. Whilst others consider those parameters to be “fency”, and will assume that the story needs to be deeper and more profound.
This is not a very profound story, but many people do overlook the fact that getting lots devices, which are supposed make things easier, can actually have a negative effect on your life.

TP: Your favourite cartoon?
HC: A short film called “Geri’s game” directed by Jan Pinkava with the Pixar Studio. This is what made me literally fall in love with animation and short films. It’s a reference in terms off animation and narration. Even the music is perfect.